A Study on the Economic Effects of Copyright Protection and Industrial Innovation in Black Myth: Wukong

As a multifaceted form of the so-called ninth art, video games have long faced legal ambiguity in the copyright protection of their non-textual elements. With the success of Black Myth: Wukong and the emergence of imitation controversies, Chinas current disaggregated protection model under the Copyright Law can cover specific content but remains insufficient in safeguarding abstract design concepts and interactive layouts. This shortfall has contributed to the widespread phenomenon of reskinned games, posing a serious threat to industrial innovation. Taking Black Myth: Wukong as a case study and drawing upon the copyright protection practices in the UK and the US, this paper adopts a quantitative research method to uncover the driving mechanisms behind piracy. The findings indicate that economic pressure is the primary driver of piracy, while copyright awareness and the quality of pirated game experiences significantly influence consumers willingness to purchase legitimate copies. Based on these findings, this paper proposes a multidimensional optimization strategy: first, clarifying the legal status of video games as audiovisual works and establishing a dual-attribute protection framework; second, refining the standards that distinguish ideas from expressions and reinforcing originality requirements to prevent overbroad protection; third, promoting diversified intellectual property protections to build a robust IP moat; and fourth, creating legitimate content-sharing platforms that implement limited-time trials, reward-based point systems, and limited-edition collectible sets to form a defense ecosystem integrating experience, social interaction, and collection. These differentiated strategies aim to offset the appeal of piracy-driven sharing economies. By aligning legal improvements with industrial innovation, this paper offers both theoretical insights and practical approaches for balancing game copyright protection and industrial innovation, thereby contributing to the sustainable development of Chinas digital content industry.